To hear his father tell it, Mordechai Meyer, 18, a high school dropout, has spent the past few years camping out with his teenage friends in the rolling hills around Jewish outposts like this one in the northern West Bank. But Israel’s domestic security agency, Shin Bet, says the younger Mr. Meyer belongs to a Jewish terrorist network, some of whose members have beencharged with grave crimes, including the July arson attack that killed aPalestinian toddler and his parents in the West Bank village of Duma.

Christmas celebrations were muted amid escalating clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in the historic city.

“As incitement against the Israeli Left grows, it is no surprise so many people believed right-wing arsonists were behind the fire at the offices of Israel’s oldest human rights organization,” writes Haggai Matar.

Israeli forces shot dead at least one Palestinian at the Beit Einun junction northeast of Hebron on Tuesday afternoon, Palestinian and Israeli sources told Ma’an. Reports suggested a second Palestinian may also have been shot dead at the site, although this was not initially confirmed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed fears Monday that the European Union will try to promote further sanctions against Israeli settlements in the West Bank. “We are in a not-so-small crisis with the European Union, first on the diplomatic side,” Netanyahu told a Likud Knesset faction meeting in Jerusalem.

“Brazil’s rejection of settler-advocate Dani Dayan as ambassador sends a strong message to Netanyahu and the Israeli right,” writes Greg Grandin.

Despite demolition order issued to road passing through Israeli-controlled West Bank area, construction continues unhindered.

Just days after its approval, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has killed a historic plan to invest in the Israeli-Arab sector by imposing three conditions that cannot be met.

The Likud’s election committee decided on Monday that there would be a February 23 Likud leadership primary even though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the only one to submit his candidacy by the Sunday noon deadline.

In recent weeks, the Shin Bet security service uncovered at least three Hamas terror cells in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that were planning to attack Israelis with guns and explosives. The arrests and indictments that followed raised the specter of suicide attacks, shootings and kidnappings.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has cut around 90 per cent of its financial support for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, pushing it to make severe salary cuts for its employees, Felesteen reported on Sunday. Despite this, leaders of the movement insist that they still have good relations with Tehran.